Conventional wall dimmers work quite smoothly with traditional (e.g., incandescent) lamp technology, and results in light that looks very appealing. It is aesthetically pleasing and economical in its implementation. To be fully embraced by end users, this is the benchmark dimming of solid state light sources needs to hit and then surpass. Unfortunately, dimmed solid state light sources often do not fare so well. Substantial power savings alone do not overcome the desire of the end user who is looking to re-create the effect and response of their existing lighting infrastructure.
The two major types of phase-cut dimmers used today (so-called because they remove, or cut, selected portions from each AC half-cycle wave) are leading-edge dimmers (LEDIM) and trailing-edge dimmers (TEDIM).
Consider an environment such as restaurants. Restaurants are quintessential environments for dimmer use, with the business norm being that lighting is in some dimmed mode, usually within the bottom 20% of the full-light level, to create a traditional intimate dining experience. By varying dimming, restaurants create areas of high luminance contrast ratios by having a low level background light between tables with often a highlight lamp or central candle placed on the table to create pools of lighting. After closing, and during the day, the restaurant may also require 100% lighting levels for cleaning, next day preparations, and so on. Movie theaters are another example of an environment where lighting is required in both dimmed mode (during the showing of a movie) and high luminance (non-dimmed) mode (before and after the movie is shown).